This is a new race series one of the local runners from my track club has started in Rochester called west of the rivers series on the western half of … MORE
This is a new race series one of the local runners from my track club has started in Rochester called west of the rivers series on the western half of Rochester. I was on call the weekend of the race and a 10K sounded perfect so I decided to try this race. It was a very small race with only about 20 participants but it had excellent production for a new, small race. It started at a park in Greece which is a suburb of Rochester. There was packet pick-up at one of the park shelter. Along with bib packet included short sleeved tech shirt and potato themed goodies (potato chips, mashed potato mix, etc). The race was professional timed with chip timing at the end only. The RD gave announcements at the start line and we were off. The course started in the park for about 1 mile. Then there was about 2.5 miles through the roads of Greece and the final 2.5 or so miles was along the canal path and back in the park. The course was very well marked and for a small race had a ton of volunteers. One minor issues which the RD apologized for before the race is she was not able to secure police. There were a couple places you had to cross there were no police but there were volunteers but they couldn’t force the cars to stop. I had no issues with road crossing and the streets weren’t super busy. but some participants may have lost 20 to 30 seconds from it. The scenery was fine. A mix of suburbs and pretty canal path and park views. The park had some minor hills. The road had 2 big hills and the canal path was flat so good mix of terrains. Not an easy but also not a hard 10K. There was an aid station at the half way point. There were mile markers on the road but not the canal path where it would have been harder to place them. Finish line had a clock and you got a small medal. My finish time was as I expected. I was aiming around 1:20 and finished slightly over since I did have to answer a page in the middle. There was great post race food with a baked potato bar. It is also very back of the pack friendly with long time limits. However given it is a small race you will likely be running by yourself a lot. Overall I was very impressed with this race. For a new race it was very well-organized and had nice swag. I hope this race series grows in size since if it were bigger so there was a more exciting atmosphere with more participants and enough to have police at the crossings this would be a 5 sneaker race. I am going to be out of town for the November race but I will definitely do the races in this series if I am in town next year. I would definitely recommend these races to locals. However given how small the race is, I would caution about the half and full marathon in November if you are a 50 stater or half fanatic/marathon maniac and need it to count as there may not be enough participants. But hopefully that will change in future years.
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Small but well produced race
This is a new race series one of the local runners from my track club has started in Rochester called west of the rivers series on the western half of … MORE
This is a new race series one of the local runners from my track club has started in Rochester called west of the rivers series on the western half of Rochester. I was on call the weekend of the race and a 10K sounded perfect so I decided to try this race. It was a very small race with only about 20 participants but it had excellent production for a new, small race. It started at a park in Greece which is a suburb of Rochester. There was packet pick-up at one of the park shelter. Along with bib packet included short sleeved tech shirt and potato themed goodies (potato chips, mashed potato mix, etc). The race was professional timed with chip timing at the end only. The RD gave announcements at the start line and we were off. The course started in the park for about 1 mile. Then there was about 2.5 miles through the roads of Greece and the final 2.5 or so miles was along the canal path and back in the park. The course was very well marked and for a small race had a ton of volunteers. One minor issues which the RD apologized for before the race is she was not able to secure police. There were a couple places you had to cross there were no police but there were volunteers but they couldn’t force the cars to stop. I had no issues with road crossing and the streets weren’t super busy. but some participants may have lost 20 to 30 seconds from it. The scenery was fine. A mix of suburbs and pretty canal path and park views. The park had some minor hills. The road had 2 big hills and the canal path was flat so good mix of terrains. Not an easy but also not a hard 10K. There was an aid station at the half way point. There were mile markers on the road but not the canal path where it would have been harder to place them. Finish line had a clock and you got a small medal. My finish time was as I expected. I was aiming around 1:20 and finished slightly over since I did have to answer a page in the middle. There was great post race food with a baked potato bar. It is also very back of the pack friendly with long time limits. However given it is a small race you will likely be running by yourself a lot. Overall I was very impressed with this race. For a new race it was very well-organized and had nice swag. I hope this race series grows in size since if it were bigger so there was a more exciting atmosphere with more participants and enough to have police at the crossings this would be a 5 sneaker race. I am going to be out of town for the November race but I will definitely do the races in this series if I am in town next year. I would definitely recommend these races to locals. However given how small the race is, I would caution about the half and full marathon in November if you are a 50 stater or half fanatic/marathon maniac and need it to count as there may not be enough participants. But hopefully that will change in future years.